THE brother of a man who went missing in Cork to be found a month later in London has recalled the "horrendous tale" in new book for charity.

Ronan Baxter made headlines across Ireland and the UK when he disappeared from his father's home- but was discovered weeks later in London in 2005.

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Spearheading the campaign to find Ronan were his family, including brother Ciaran, an accountant, who has written a book about the ordeal.

Ronan has depression and schizophrenia and left his home with some money, his bank book and a bus pass.

With no passport, he managed to catch a flight from Cork Airport to Heathrow - staying in London without his medication.

Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio One, Ciaran recalled the panic when they realised Ronan - who they assumed had taken a weekend trip to Dublin - was not coming home.

He said: "The initial reaction when he walked out the front door that day, he was an adult, he was 39 years of age, the immediate reaction is, look, hes going to come back.

"Hes only gone to Dublin for the weekend, he had a bus pass, he didnt have a passport so our immediate reaction was hell be back.

"By the end of the first week, we realised we had a serious problem, he wasnt coming home."

Ciaran then sprung to action printing posters and finding contacts in the gardai through family friends.

After a front page story in the Cork Echo, two weeks later a man contacted the guards to say he had seen Ronan in the airport and despite already checking CCTV footage, the man was right.

Ciaran and his family had to make the decision to contact the media for help on the matter - originally worried about public reaction due to the stigma of mental health issues.

He explained: "It was horrendous to be quite honest with you, because we were bringing our family story out into the public domain and said look, here we are, theres nothing we can do and we need your help.

He added: "It was as if the floodgates had opened.

"I think theres a stigma in this country, and in all countries around mental health.

"We had posted posters all over the city about Ronan, lots of people knew our story, lots of people knew we were looking for Ronan."

Despite their worries, Ciaran revealed that the media coverage allowed people to talk with the family about Ronan and offerhelp.

He said: "Once it went out in the media, once it was front page news, the floodgates opened and people came to us offering help, it was as if it was then okay to approach us and talk about it."

Ciaran revealed that when in London, they got a helping hand from a Kerry man in Scotland Yard and the family had to report Ronan missing to each individual police station.

Working day in and day out without sleep, he explained: "You don't sleep when this happens, you're waiting for dawn, you're waiting for light to come so you can start again."

After a front page piece in a London paper, Ronan was spotted and the brothers were reunited.

Ronan said: "He broke down, completely broke down and we broke down too to be honest with you.

"I think we plucked him from the abyss.

"That was the attitude we had going, we said, were going to go in there, were going to get him and were going to bring him home."

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Ciaran has written a book on the fantastic story of their families search and rescue of Ronan, with his full consent, named Bring Him Home: The Search for Ronan.

All proceeds made from the book will be donated to Cork Penny Dinners with Ciaran explaining organisations like them are "the real heroes of Irish society today".

He finished: "It's an Irish story, It's a true story, with a happy ending."

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Originally posted here:
Cork man recounts horrendous ordeal of mentally ill brother going missing for month before turning up in Lon - The Irish Sun